Movie review: Black Swan’ is one of year's best films

Tuesday

Nov 30, 2010 at 12:01 AMNov 30, 2010 at 9:28 PM

Check out “Black Swan,” Darren Aronofsky’s unsettling peek at the terror lurking behind the beauty of ballet. It’s not for the faint of heart. In fact, I’m willing to bet that it’ll creep you out more than any horror picture you’ve ever seen. And there’s few better to lead us on this startling dark journey through the looking glass than America’s girl next door, Natalie Portman. Who can resist that sweet face, inviting smile and homicidal glint? No one, and that’s what makes Aronofsky’s follow-up to “The Wrestler” so relentlessly compelling.

Al Alexander

Mamas, don’t let your daughters grow up to be ballerinas. Encourage them to be test pilots, tightrope walkers, human cannonballs and such – any career safer than the world of tutus and tiaras.

I know this because I’ve seen the insanity, sharp implements and blood that are a part of their world. And that’s just the toenail trimming. Imagine what one of them might do to their overly ambitious understudy.

If you’re curious, check out “Black Swan,” Darren Aronofsky’s unsettling peek at the terror lurking behind the beauty of ballet. It’s not for the faint of heart. In fact, I’m willing to bet that it’ll creep you out more than any horror picture you’ve ever seen.

And there’s few better to lead us on this startling dark journey through the looking glass than America’s girl next door, Natalie Portman. Who can resist that sweet face, inviting smile and homicidal glint? No one, and that’s what makes Aronofsky’s follow-up to “The Wrestler” so relentlessly compelling.

Portman hasn’t been this multi-dimensional since her debut as the original hit-girl in Luc Besson’s “The Professional.” And that was 16 years ago. In between, she’s been largely stuck in a “good girl” rut, and that includes her stripper with the heart of gold in Mike Nichols’ “Closer.”

Here, though, she’s wonderfully conflicted, torn between the woman her Nina is and the woman she wants to be, if only she could find the G spot, literally and figuratively, that will release the uninhibited seductress within.

She better find it quick, too, because she’s been cast as the lead in an adulterated version of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake,” in which she’ll dance the roles of both the virginal White Swan and her evil, conniving twin, the Black Swan. Only problem is that Nina couldn’t be sinister if she tried, and believe me, she’s trying.

She’d do just about anything to be as free and sexually liberated as her new understudy, Lily (an alluring Mila Kunis), who seems to be winning more and more favor with the production’s creative director, Thomas LeRoy (a perfectly cast Vincent Cassel). Or at least she is in the eyes of the increasingly paranoid Nina, who no doubt keeps a copy of Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” between the frilly pillows and teddy bears cluttering the bedroom of the apartment she shares with her over-protective mother, Erica (a terrific Barbara Hershey).

One of that book’s most famous edicts demands that you keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And thus begins an uneasy alliance between Nina and her adversary. But is Lily really her enemy?

Aronofsky certainly keeps you guessing. But that’s just the bait to lure you into a story that goes far deeper than backstage politics. We see the toes on pointe, but Aronofsky’s more astute points reside 60 inches higher in Nina’s rapidly deteriorating mind.

Rarely has a film so graphically displayed the mental toll art takes on the artist’s sanity, as he or she strives for perfection at all costs. Nor has one so disturbingly depicted the physical anguish of a performer dealing with numerous aches, pains and bouts of bulimia.

You might be losing your lunch, too, by the time Aronofsky is finished exposing you to one grotesque image after another. Even the simple task of clipping a toenail is reason to squirm. And in that respect, “Black Swan” is very much like “The Wrestler,” which didn’t so much show the scars as much as it made you feel them. But this time there’s no mid-life love affair or aching desire to right the wrongs of a selfish lifestyle.

No, this is brutality for brutality’s sake. But instead of simply exploiting it, Aronofsky uses it to glean insight into the pain, struggle and sacrifice required to make every ballet move look effortless.

Oh, yeah, the dancing is pretty special, too, with Portman and Kunis doing most of the work in lieu of doubles. Both are spectacular, especially Portman, who awes you with her style and grace in the film’s climatic performance, which is accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s transcendent score. I can honestly say it was the first time I was moved by a dancer.

Much of that, of course, has to do with the how the scenes were shot by Aronofsky and his director of photography, Matthew Libatique. The duo, which has worked together on four of Aronofsky’s five films, is clearly of a single mind, as they create one startling vision after another.

Particularly effective is their use of mirrors, a ballerina’s best – and worst – friend. Whether in the dance studio in Nina’s apartment or dressing room, we’re often seeing two of everything, which perfectly underscores the two sides of the Swan Queen and the duality of Nina’s personality.

It’s the acting, though, that makes “Black Swan” one of the year’s very best films. And while Portman carries most of the load, appearing in every scene, she receives outstanding support from Hershey, Cassel, Kunis and Winona Ryder, making a striking comeback as the washed up prima ballerina Nina replaces.

Like the film, Ryder’s character is sad, frightening and deliciously off the rails. It’s truly madness you can believe in.

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